Dale’s defending state champions boys and girls won their area finals and sealed their berths in the Class 2A state tournaments last week while Chandler’s boys and North Rock Creek’s boys and girls movedontothisweek’sarea tournament with a chance at state on the line.
For the Dale boys, the seniors will be looking to win their fourth straight gold ball. Coach Jeff Edmonson will lead the Pirates against Cashion at 9 a.m. Thursday in The Big House.
The girls will face Merritt at 4:30 Thurday afternoon.
Chandler’s boys face off against fourth-ranked Anadarko at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Ada. A win sends the Lions to state; an Anadarko win means the Lions come back Saturday night for a second chance to go to state.
TheNRCboysplayOklahoma Christian at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Hennessey. The winner of that game will advance to next week’s Class 4Astate tournament and the loser will play Saturday for a second chance to qualify for state.
The NRC girls will play Blanchard at 6 p.m. Thursday in Hennessey and will have to win three straight games to make state.
Chandler fell behind ninth-ranked Washington in the early going, but came back to take the lead in the second quarter and pulled away in the second half to win, 62-51.
It was a physical affair and Chandler coach Shawn Blankenship said he told his team at halftime that the winner would be the team that could endure.
“The main thing I told them was: ‘It’s not anything we’ve down right or wrong to get here.’ The thing was that they were competing at such a high level and so were we, it was going to be decided by who could sustain it versus who let down.
“And I thought we sustained it better than they did.
“We did a good job and didn’t panic when we got down. We made a few mistakes on our matchups in that stretch when they went up, but we dug our way out.”
The Lion’s next opponent, Anadarko, comes to area after winning an overtime game against Marlow at Lone Grove.
The Warriors have lost four games, with three comingagainstNo.1teams - two losses to 4A Weatherford and one to 2A Dale. The other was a loss to Class 4A Bethany.
The Lions will go into the game with a 23-3 record and ranked No. 8 in Class 3A.